Why Harvard Is Ditching One of Its Oldest Traditions Because Some Think It’s Racist

Honestly, it was about time.

Harvard University is changing a centuries-old tradition — they're ditching the phrase "House Master" to describe their residential administrators, and switching over to the more modern and politically sensitive term of "Faculty Dean."

The move was made in an effort to foster a more "inclusive community," according to a statement from the school yesterday. Harvard, like Yale and Princeton, has employed the phrase almost since inception to refer to its faculty members that oversee each of Harvard College's 12 residential houses. But discussion over whether the term — which originates from Latin (magister) and means teacher or chief servant — was still appropriate has been raging for some time given that "master" was also the term American slaves were forced to call their enslavers. In an interview with the Harvard Gazette last year, Rakesh Khurana, who is the dean of Harvard College, acknowledged that the "title causes discomfort" and "doesn't fully communicate the responsibilities of the role and how it has evolved."

Traditions, however, especially at Ivy Leagues, die hard, and it wasn't until late last year and after a wave of college students around the country protested institutionalized racism and microaggressions at schools that Harvard announced on December 1 that they would retire the word. Michael Smith, Harvard's dean of faculty of arts and sciences, said in the same interview, "In this country, with our history, I can't call someone in an oversight role 'master' without having images of human subjugation come to mind."

Yesterday's announcement revealed the new term, which The Harvard Crimson reported upset some alumni and students. In an emailed statement to undergraduates yesterday, Smith wrote, "I want to emphasize that a decision to change does not necessarily mean that what came before was wrong." He summed up by saying that any alumni who still want to use that term "should have no qualms doing so," and added that this change was not a band-aid of sorts for discussions about race on campus.

William A. Greenlaw, an undergraduate at the school told The Crimson, "I think it's a good title, my only worry is that the College might pat itself on the back for doing the the name change and then forget about issues of greater cultural import on campus."

We too hope that this is only one of the first steps at Harvard, and other schools around the country, to truly address the feelings and concerns of some of its students.